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Pollock out for third game with groin injury

4/29/14: A.J. Pollock ties the game with a mammoth home run that deflects off the upper portion of the left-field foul pole

By Steve Gilbert
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MLB.com |

SAN DIEGO -- Right up until he started running Saturday afternoon, D-backs outfielder A.J. Pollock thought he would be in that night's starting lineup.

Instead Pollock was out of the lineup for the third straight game with a groin injury.

"We thought he was pretty close," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "I asked him after the game [Friday] if he thought he'd be ready to go, he thought he would and then he came out and ran today and he's just not where he needs to be."

Pollock first felt tightness in the groin last Tuesday when he rounded third base in the sixth inning. He stayed in the game and wound up delivering the game-tying homer in the eighth inning.

"It's just like that last gear you try to get to, it's kind of grabbing," Pollock said. "I'm probably at about 80 running. I went out there and tested it with all the trainers and stuff. They kind of wanted me to take another day. I was ready to go. I told them, 'If you guys are OK with me going 80, maybe 85 percent, then I'd like to play.' It's frustrating. It's the worst not being able to play."

Pollock missed the team's four-game series with the Cubs last month with a strained neck and he was not happy to once again be unable to play.

"Hopefully I can get over this and not have to deal with anything ever again this year," he said." It's not a big deal. It really isn't. But in my head right now it kind of [stinks] not being able to be out there."